Without some type of reliable monitoring system, companies that use large fleets of vehicles are subject to misuse or theft of their fleet vehicles. For example, it is likely that some vehicles in a large fleet will be used by employees without authorization or will at least occasionally be the target of auto thieves. In addition, even employees who are authorized to use a vehicle for some purposes may, in some instances, deviate from an authorized route or otherwise make an unauthorized use of the vehicle. One way to reduce these problems is to install tracking devices in the vehicles of a fleet. Such tracking devices can enable a fleet manager to monitor the location of vehicles of the fleet.
To simplify the monitoring process, a “geo-fencing” routine may be used to allow a fleet manager to establish a virtual boundary around a predetermined location for purposes of automatically notifying the fleet manager when a vehicle crosses the boundary.